Is Shift At Midnight crossplay?
Yes — but only on one side of the fence. Xbox console and PC Game Pass players share a pool. Steam players do not. If you are about to buy this game so you can play with a friend, read the next paragraph before you spend the money.
Last verified 28 July 2026 · game version: launch build (22 July 2026)
Steam players cannot play with Game Pass or Xbox players. Xbox Series X|S and PC Game Pass / Microsoft Store players can play together, because Shift At Midnight is an Xbox Play Anywhere title and those builds share one crossplay pool. The Steam build is its own island.
The compatibility table
| Your platform | Can play with | Cannot play with |
|---|---|---|
| Steam (Windows) | Steam only | Xbox console, PC Game Pass, Microsoft Store |
| Xbox Series X|S | Xbox + PC Game Pass | Steam |
| PC Game Pass | Xbox + PC Game Pass | Steam |
| Microsoft Store (bought) | Xbox + PC Game Pass | Steam |
Why it works this way
Shift At Midnight ships as an Xbox Play Anywhere title. Play Anywhere is a Microsoft programme that treats the Xbox console version and the Windows version as the same purchase and the same account context — buy it once on the Microsoft Store and you own both, with shared saves and shared multiplayer. Crossplay between console and PC comes essentially for free inside that ecosystem, because both builds are talking to the same Microsoft networking layer.
Steam sits outside that layer. Connecting Steam's networking to Xbox's requires the developer to deliberately build and certify a bridge between two different account systems, two different friend lists and two different online service backends. For a solo developer's first commercial release, that is a substantial piece of engineering that does not affect the single-player experience at all. It is a common thing to leave out of a launch build.
Decide as a group before anyone clicks buy. If even one person in your trio has Game Pass, the cheapest correct answer is usually for everyone to be on the Microsoft side — Game Pass subscribers pay nothing extra, and anyone without a subscription can buy it once on the Microsoft Store and still play with the Xbox console players. Buying on Steam because it was the first store you saw is the mistake that gets made here.
Does this mean Steam is the worse version?
No — the game content is the same. The Steam build has its own healthy player base, and if your whole group is on Steam, nothing about this affects you. The problem is specifically mixed groups. The Steam version also has Steam Achievements and Family Sharing, which are genuine advantages if you care about them.
What you lose on Steam is reach: your matchmaking pool is Steam players only, and you cannot pull in the large population of people who got the game free through Game Pass on day one. For a three-player co-op game where you generally play with people you already know, that mostly matters for the "my friend has Game Pass" scenario.
Will Steam crossplay be added later?
No announcement has been made. The published roadmap for Shift At Midnight names one thing: a free Endless Mode update in Q4 2026. Cross-network play with Steam is not part of any communication we can verify as of 28 July 2026.
We are not going to guess at it either. If it ships, it will show up in a patch note, and this page will be updated with the date and the source. Until then, plan your purchases as though the Steam island is permanent.
How many players, and how does voice work?
Shift At Midnight supports up to three players in online co-op. It uses proximity chat, which is a design decision that shapes the whole experience — your teammates' voices get quieter as they walk away from you down the aisles, and the game expects you to shout across the store. That is why the co-op is tense in a way that a Discord call in a separate window is not.
It also means you should be careful about running third-party voice chat over the top of it. Doing so removes the distance cue that the design depends on, and in practice makes it much harder to tell where a teammate is when something goes wrong. See the co-op guide for how three players should split roles.
Related questions
Is Shift At Midnight on Game Pass?
Yes, day one, on both console and PC. It is also Play Anywhere. Details on the Game Pass page.
Can I play Shift At Midnight solo?
Yes. It has a full single-player mode alongside the three-player co-op. Several of the achievements — including the ending-related ones — do not require a group.
Do I need Game Pass Ultimate or does PC Game Pass work?
PC Game Pass covers the PC build. To play on an Xbox Series X|S console you need the console tier, which is included in Ultimate. Either way, both sit inside the same crossplay pool.
Does buying on Microsoft Store instead of Steam change anything else?
It changes achievement tracking — you get Xbox achievements rather than Steam achievements. Our achievements page uses the Steam global stats, because those are the numbers that are publicly readable.